THE EFFECTS OF READING ACTIVITY CHARACTERISTICS ON L2 READING PROCESSES AND NOTICING OF GLOSSED CONSTRUCTIONS

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which manipulating the characteristics of second language reading activities affects the reading process and noticing of glossed linguistic constructions. Thirty-eight Korean learners of English read two texts under conditions that required more or less careful reading. For the condition intended to promote more careful reading, each paragraph of the texts was divided into three or four subparts. For the condition expected to elicit less careful reading, each paragraph was split into two sections. While reading the texts, the participants ' eye movements were recorded. Eleven students were further invited to participate in stimulated recall protocols. The target constructions were English unaccusative verbs and 10 pseudowords, which were glossed with Korean translations. The eye movement and stimulated recall data indicated that, as predicted, the participants processed the texts more carefully and attended to the target verbs more closely when paragraphs were divided into more subparts.